Twilight Comes Early Post-Potter Delay

With Warner Bros. having announced the delayed premiere of the fifth “Harry Potter” film (something about a Half-blood guy or some such), Summit Entertainment has decided to jump on the hole left behind by the now-2009 film and scheduled their “Twilight” to come earlier than expected — November 21st, 2008, to be exact. That’s about three weeks earlier than the movie’s original December 12th release date. And you gotta admit, it’s the way to go; without Potter, there’s only one other book-turned-movies the kids out there are going nuts over.

Los Angeles, CA August 15, 2008 – TWILIGHT, the first film in Summit Entertainment’s thriller romance franchise, has moved up its North American release date to Friday, November 21, 2008. The film, which was previously planned to be released on December, 12, 2008, is taking advantage of an opening in the upcoming fall release calendar. The new release date for TWILIGHT allows the studio to both bring the film to the written-series’ enormous fan base sooner, and to present the film in more theatres prior to the holiday movie-going season where traditionally screen time for any popular film is limited.

“When Warner Bros. decided to move HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE to the summer of 2009, we saw a unique opportunity to slot in our film which has been gaining tremendous awareness and momentum over the past several months,” said Rob Friedman, Co-Chairman and CEO of Summit Entertainment. “We by no means are trying to fill the shoes of the incredible POTTER franchise for 2008, rather we are just looking to bring the fans of Stephenie Meyer’s incredible book series the film as soon possible from a programming perspective.”

Starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart in the thriller-romance based on Stephenie Meyer’s publishing phenomenon, the film is directed by Catherine Hardwicke from a script by Melissa Rosenberg (STEP UP). Karen Rosenfelt (DEVIL WEARS PRADA), Greg Mooradian and Wyck Godfrey will produce along with Mark Morgan via his Maverick Films banner.

TWILIGHT tells the story of 17-year-old Bella Swan (Stewart) who moves to the small town of Forks, Washington to live with her father, and becomes drawn to Edward Cullen (Pattinson), a pale, mysterious classmate who seems determined to push her away. But neither can deny the attraction that pulls them together…even when Edward confides that he and his family are vampires. Their unorthodox romance puts her in physical danger when Edward’s nemesis comes to town and sets his sights on Bella.